It's About Liberty: A Conservative Forum
Topics => General Board => Topic started by: trapeze on October 26, 2012, 11:37:51 PM
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I have been noticing things spiraling out of control at HotAir for quite a while but last night it really took a turn for the worse.
I couldn't get on for about thirty minutes late last night and then when I was able to finally connect I realized why...they had overhauled the website. Sadly, it was not for the better.
For a very long time HotAir has had a big link on their sidebar to the "Green Room" where amateur (but prolific) conservative bloggers were featured. Yesterday they had their own version of the Saturday Night Massacre. They "fired" all of the amateur bloggers. Last night they moved the "Green Room" off of the sidebar and put it at the top of the site under the "Headlines." They cut the headlines from ten articles down to six to accommodate the space taken up with the "Green Room." Now, instead of the "Green Room" being filled with the amateur bloggers it is taken up with, inexplicably, the same people who write the opinion pieces on the front page. And, although they have promised to remedy the situation, they have not enabled comments for the "Green Room."
This appears to be yet another of an ongoing series of changes made by the new owners of HotAir to presumably increase their revenue.
None of these changes have, to my way of thinking, improved the product that HotAir delivers. I will probably be looking for a new place to find the inside scoop on the news of the day because I just don't see things getting better at HotAir.
I hate it when a good thing goes bad.
Here is the HotAir announcement post. (http://hotair.com/archives/2012/10/26/welcome-to-the-new-green-room/) The comments are not quite universally of the condemnation nature but almost.
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Honestly, I quit reading Tepid Air years ago, just skimming the headlines, which I still do on rare occassions; i've posted so infrequently I've lost my password (never to be retreived again). Once Malkin sold it and The Pillsbury Doughboy and Eeyore took over, the site became liberal light with far too many trolls. Never liked TownHall's site format, either.
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One thing I've noticed for quite a while now is that HA is late to a story. Lots of times, a story will be out there for a day or two on Drudge or other blogs like GWP, Blaze, Breitbart, etc, before HA ever says anything.
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Open Registration twice in the last year allowed an unfortunate amount of trolls to get through the gate. I enjoy HA, and post there often, hoping that a click on my screen name wil drive some traffic over here. I don't go there for the articles as much as I enjoy the community. (But not as much as here.)
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The addition of writers (who I assume come from the Townhall community) has not been a success, in my opinion.
I thought that Mary Katherine Hamm would be good but she has not been much of a contributor other than her daily "War on Bacon" posts which do not inspire me to click on them.
Erika Johnsen is not a very good writer. She occasionally brings an interesting topic but usually fails to write about it in an interesting an engaging way. Worse, she sometimes completely screws up her grammar which is not something I expect from someone who presumably gets paid for writing.
I expect that there will be an even greater influx of Townhall "talent" now that they have dumped the amateurs.
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Not since Michelle sold it.
Conservative light, no thanks.
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Open Registration twice in the last year allowed an unfortunate amount of trolls to get through the gate. I enjoy HA, and post there often, hoping that a click on my screen name wil drive some traffic over here. I don't go there for the articles as much as I enjoy the community. (But not as much as here.)
I found my (internet) voice post-9/11. Suddenly I could no longer simply stand by and watch everything I cared about get ruined. So I sought out venues where I could chime in and add my opinions (such as they are) to the mix. The only one that I'm still associated with all these years later is FreeRepublic. IMO any site that has to have "open enrollment" has fundamental issues that I can't fix (not interested in even trying). That disfunctionality really displayed itself with lgf.
Hotair has never been a forum where I could add my voice. I read stuff there but only sporadically. I don't get the sense of community there so I haven't pursued running the gauntlet in order to get in. That doesn't mean that there isn't value to be had from the site - just that it's only a resource for me, not an oasis.
The Freepers otoh, is somewhat of a paradox to me. I've made a lot of friends over the years - and a surprising number of enemies. There are a great many people there who mistake libertarianism for conservatism. Heck, even the owner is way more libertarian than conservative! I think that their primary mistake was in the molding of their "business" model (IMO FreeRepublic is a "hobby" site and not a real business) they minimized the contributions of their own members. There have been some great writers that are/were associated with the site but, since "vanities" (articles written by members but unpublished anywhere else) are strongly discouraged, the braintrust of their own members was wasted and frustrated. The best writers go elsewhere where their efforts are better appreciated.
Interestingly, huffpo took the opposite approach and encouraged user "diaries". Through cultivation they are producing effecting writers (acknowledging their abilities even if I don't appreciate their POV).
Writing is harder than first blush would appear and consistent production is more than most car capable of (especially when one is inclined to end on a participle!). When you factor in the practical business needs (attracting paying customers that generate revenues) and try to balance them against purist activism you can get a great many compromises.
Here's a question for y'all: Has anyone ever done an analysis of viewership of Powerline before and after throwing their users under the bus? We have a sense anecdotally what the consequences are, but I doubt that the overall effect was much more than a short-term dip in their page-views. I'd love to know.
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Good question 'Soup, some proof of before and after would be interesting. I know I have not been to PL nowhere near as much as before, I get more breaking news from Drudge, or The Blaze or Gateway Pundit. And I have not registered on the latter two because kinda like my account at HA you often have to talk around the chatter to have any meaningful dialogue, so I post less at HA lately. I do a little bit more of that at RS, but even then I do not comment heavily there. If I want dialogue I come here. The news/commentary/comment sites just have too much going on. About all I did anyway at HA was jump in from time to time, flame an idiot, laud a sane person or just leave a snarky comment.
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I pine for another to develop a blog similar to PL's.
Had hopes for GB but... it must be lack of ownership
control or a serious liability problem because the
model is there. It couldn't be that GB etc. are
ignorant of it happening and it's gigantic size.
Wish I had a screen shot of the page layouts.
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Most of my activity other than this forum is at PJ Media, Moonbattery, and Small Dead Animals.
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I noticed this years ago when they selectively banned me for something very minor in nature that nobody bothered to explain it. Bryan Preston was a little prick and I was happy to see him go but is never became anything close to what it's potential could be. Since that time I've browsed briefly until John Hayward (Doc Zero) picked up and left courtesy of HE. John had a very large following and they HE changed the commenting requirements and that left me with this beautiful forum and TRS which is updated much faster than most.
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I noticed this years ago when they selectively banned me for something very minor in nature that nobody bothered to explain it. Bryan Preston was a little prick and I was happy to see him go but is never became anything close to what it's potential could be. Since that time I've browsed briefly until John Hayward (Doc Zero) picked up and left courtesy of HE. John had a very large following and they HE changed the commenting requirements and that left me with this beautiful forum and TRS which is updated much faster than most.
Just edited out a whole bunch of white space, warpmine, if you don't mind.
Wow, hadn't realized Doc Zero was gone. I liked him.
Who is HE?
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Wow, hadn't realized Doc Zero was gone. I liked him.
Who is HE?
Doc Zero was so good, somebody snatched him up. He is now blogging under his real name somewhere. (I can't remember it, I'll Bing it in a sec.)
OK: John Hayward is Doc Zero and is bloggin g over at Human Events. (HE)
http://www.humanevents.com/author/John-Hayward/ (http://www.humanevents.com/author/John-Hayward/)
John Hayward began his blogging career as a guest writer at Hot Air under the pen name "Doctor Zero," producing a collection of essays entitled "Doctor Zero: Year One." His work has also appeared at the Daily Caller, Death By 1000 Papercuts, and the New York Post. His writing has been cited at Tea Party gatherings across the country, and quoted on the air by commentators such as Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin. His journey from prolific evening commenter in blog forums, to full-time professional writer, took just under two years. Prior to this mid-life career change, he had a long career in the computer software industry.
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Have never once gone to Hot Air .I guess I just never took the time .
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Wow, hadn't realized Doc Zero was gone. I liked him.
Who is HE?
Doc Zero was so good, somebody snatched him up. He is now blogging under his real name somewhere. (I can't remember it, I'll Bing it in a sec.)
OK: John Hayward is Doc Zero and is bloggin g over at Human Events. (HE)
http://www.humanevents.com/author/John-Hayward/ (http://www.humanevents.com/author/John-Hayward/)
John Hayward began his blogging career as a guest writer at Hot Air under the pen name "Doctor Zero," producing a collection of essays entitled "Doctor Zero: Year One." His work has also appeared at the Daily Caller, Death By 1000 Papercuts, and the New York Post. His writing has been cited at Tea Party gatherings across the country, and quoted on the air by commentators such as Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin. His journey from prolific evening commenter in blog forums, to full-time professional writer, took just under two years. Prior to this mid-life career change, he had a long career in the computer software industry.
Thanks, BAS. When is asked "Who is HE?" I should have asked "What is HE?" but you answered anyway; Human Events.
Townhall and Human Events are two places I rarely get to these days.
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http://itsaboutliberty.com/index.php/topic,7057.msg81088.html#msg81088 (http://itsaboutliberty.com/index.php/topic,7057.msg81088.html#msg81088)
Reply #10 on: Yesterday at 09:17:37 PM
"Since that time I've browsed briefly until John Hayward (Doc Zero) picked up and left courtesy of HE."
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I'll cruise Human Events once in a while, maybe once or twice a month. It's hard to hit everything everywhere. I guess we all have our patterns and preferences, works though, we have enough eyes scouring the digital landscape, little should ever get by us!
::thumbsup::
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I guess we all have our patterns and preferences, works though, we have enough eyes scouring the digital landscape, little should ever get by us!
::thumbsup::
That's why I like this type of fora, and the fauna that go with them. News aggregation that I would never normally see. I'm just not crazy about the linear 'to the bottom of the page and into oblivion' type blogs. I understand the immediacy aspect, but something is lost in translation, specifically the comments.
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I guess we all have our patterns and preferences, works though, we have enough eyes scouring the digital landscape, little should ever get by us!
::thumbsup::
That's why I like this type of fora, and the fauna that go with them. News aggregation that I would never normally see. I'm just not crazy about the linear 'to the bottom of the page and into oblivion' type blogs. I understand the immediacy aspect, but something is lost in translation, specifically the comments.
Well put. ::thumbsup::
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Here's where I'm putting twitter to use. Following tons of conservatives--websites & people-- helps me filter out the interesting from the boring. In a couple of minutes I can peruse tweets and discover any links I want to read without having to go to every specific site to check.
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I'll cruise Human Events once in a while, maybe once or twice a month. It's hard to hit everything everywhere. I guess we all have our patterns and preferences, works though, we have enough eyes scouring the digital landscape, little should ever get by us!
::thumbsup::
That's exactly right -- we rarely miss anything.
The thing is trying to keep it all organized into some coherent order. ::whatgives::
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I'll cruise Human Events once in a while, maybe once or twice a month. It's hard to hit everything everywhere. I guess we all have our patterns and preferences, works though, we have enough eyes scouring the digital landscape, little should ever get by us!
::thumbsup::
That's exactly right -- we rarely miss anything.
The thing is trying to keep it all organized into some coherent order. ::whatgives::
Order? We dohn need noh stinkin order! ;D
Seriously though, we all seem fairly organized and y'all moderators keep us (somewhat) lined up.
::thumbsup::
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I'll cruise Human Events once in a while, maybe once or twice a month. It's hard to hit everything everywhere. I guess we all have our patterns and preferences, works though, we have enough eyes scouring the digital landscape, little should ever get by us!
::thumbsup::
That's exactly right -- we rarely miss anything.
The thing is trying to keep it all organized into some coherent order. ::whatgives::
Order? We dohn need noh stinkin order! ;D
Seriously though, we all seem fairly organized and y'all moderators keep us (somewhat) lined up.
::thumbsup::
::curtsy4:: Doing the best we can. I still feel a twinge of cringe when I move, split or merge topics because I don't want anybody to be offended.
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I'll cruise Human Events once in a while, maybe once or twice a month. It's hard to hit everything everywhere. I guess we all have our patterns and preferences, works though, we have enough eyes scouring the digital landscape, little should ever get by us!
::thumbsup::
That's exactly right -- we rarely miss anything.
The thing is trying to keep it all organized into some coherent order. ::whatgives::
Order? We dohn need noh stinkin order! ;D
Seriously though, we all seem fairly organized and y'all moderators keep us (somewhat) lined up.
::thumbsup::
::curtsy4:: Doing the best we can. I still feel a twinge of cringe when I move, split or merge topics because I don't want anybody to be offended.
Eh, should be no offense, judgement call. Y'all doin' good! ::hat-tip::
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Doin' fine.
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I'm relieved if you fix up my posts--so it's not out there hanging--all stupid like....
::curtsy4::
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Anytime, ma'am, and thanks to everybody for "getting it".
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I think there's something positive to be said for a site like ours that I wish would be recognized by a larger audience. We of course offer our .02ยข, but even more than that, we aggregate the news from news aggregation sites.
One would think that amongst all the top blogs and news aggregation sites, there would be almost universal redundancy from one to the next, but that's not the case. Of course they all hit the main news stories, but the secondary things they choose to focus on provides a wide variety. We cherry-pick from them all, and bring the best here.
Hot Air though, has become a site that carries little that one cannot find easily elsewhere, and as I said earlier, they are often late to a story. Still, I go there out of habit. Their front-page format is clean and well organized.
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Their front-page format is clean and well organized.
It was.
I am starting to look elsewhere for my stuff.
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Here's where I'm putting twitter to use. Following tons of conservatives--websites & people-- helps me filter out the interesting from the boring. In a couple of minutes I can peruse tweets and discover any links I want to read without having to go to every specific site to check.
Facebook can also be used like that. "Like" Human Events and I get every Doc Zero column dribbling down my wall. ::thumbsup::
That's who I read there more often than not.
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Facebook can also be used like that. "Like" Human Events and I get every Doc Zero column dribbling down my wall. ::thumbsup::
That's who I read there more often than not.
Good idea.
Hey, I may just try this "Twitter" thin gy . . .